Oregon State's last Rose Bowl appearance in 1965 still a bone of contention with old-time USC fans

Oregon State quarterback Paul Brothers lets go of a pass in the 1965 Rose Bowl game against Michigan - OSU's last appearance in the game.BLACK FRIDAY in southeast Portland: As we examine what former USC athletic director Jess Hill called, "one of the rankest injustices ever perpetrated in the field of intercollegiate athletics.''

We’re still getting the odd phone call and occasional email about our contention that the 113th Civil War is the first time in the rivalry’s history where both teams are guaranteed a Rose Bowl berth if they win.

A lot of people out there seem think it happened in 1964, when Johnson beat Goldwater in a landslide, Jimmy Hoffa was still above ground (and in a lotta trouble), Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight title, kids (me included) were jamming into theatres to watch “A Hard Days Night’’ or “Mary Poppins’’ and Liz Taylor was dumping Eddie Fisher for Richard Burton.

Well, in the words of Lee Corso, not so fast …let's go back 45 years.

There were Rose Bowl implications for both teams, but after Oregon State beat the Ducks 7-6 in Corvallis a trip to Pasadena to meet Michigan was still very much up in the air.

The AAWU? Yeah, the old Pacific Coast Conference had disbanded in 1959 after a “pay for play’’ scandal involving the Huskies and the L.A. schools (go figure).

Oregon and Oregon State joined the AAWU before the ’64 season, but conference officials didn’t have time to re-work schedules so everybody played each other.

OSU did not meet USC head-to-head in ’64.

That would become a sticking point later on.

The Ducks had started the ’64 season 6-0 and got to No. 7 in the AP rankings but they were beaten by a last-second Stanford field goal and a tie at home against WSU further dampened their hopes for the Granddaddy of all bowl games.

The AAWU vote, immediately after the Trojans’ win, deadlocked at 4-4. The northern schools went for OSU. The southern schools went for USC.

The first tiebreaker was this: the team that had gone to the Rose Bowl most recently would have to sit out. And USC had gone two years earlier.

That sent Oregon State to Pasadena to play mighty Michigan, despite the protestations of USC. The Trojans thought they got robbed, which created a somewhat hostile environment (the local media were not kind) for OSU coach Tommy Prothro’s guys when they arrived in southern California to get ready for the game.

The No. 8 Beavers went into the Rose Bowl as 11-point underdogs and they got drilled 34-7. They also lost their coach because Prothro was soon headed to UCLA. A fellow named Dee Andros would step on campus and a guy named Steve Preece would follow Brothers as the team's QB. ... can you say, GIANT KILLERS?